Before I start a painting it is important for me to get into the correct mood, so I tend to play some dark and ambient music. Whilst painting this image I listened to Radiohead as it is fairly light and mellow.

I always start by filling the canvas with a simple flat color and sketching with some random brushes (which you can download for free from my website www.pandemoniumart.net/brushes) until I find a shape I like and that allows me to explore more ideas and see where the image takes me (Fig.01). I usually don't have anything clearly defined in my mind, and in this case I just knew that I wanted to paint a static, moody piece with some sort of mysterious goddess or exotic sorceress in it. I think the inspiration came from old photos of movie actresses. I like to paint at this stage with a loose textured brush so that happy accidents can occur, sometimes for the best. I try to keep everything fairly flat and simple (Fig.02).

Fig.01

Fig.02

Defining the main composition is a hard task, but after this first step I tried to find some gesture and expression for the character (Fig.03). I then focused on her face, adding more details. I painted her eyes closed as if she is meditating, dreaming, fading away. This is, in general, how I approach an illustration; I try to communicate an idea, emotion or mood.